The Ragnarok
by darkwhispersdale
Summary: Post MK (2011)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

She stared at herself in the mirror, frowning slightly as she noted the dark circles under her eyes, the pale pallor of her skin and the general haggard look of her face. She idly wondered when she had last slept through the night without awakening to the sounds of terrified screams, seeing the deaths of her friends or the smell of charred human flesh. She shuddered remembering last night's dream, suddenly seeing Liu Kang's apparition before her eyes exactly like he was after Raiden had electrocuted him. He had died in their arms just before Shao Kahn had been defeated by the Elder Gods. Rubbing her eyes the vision faded leaving her looking at herself in the mirror again.

"Man up Sonya" She chided herself, "what would Jax say if he saw you like this." She smiled grimly no doubt Jax would have cracked a joke or threatened Johnny about something. "I wish you were here Jax we... I need you." Taking one last look at herself in the mirror, then checking her uniform, Sonya Blade straightened up then turned and walked towards the door directly behind her. She hesitated before opening the door, the others should have arrived by now, all three of them. Earth was defended by only three warriors, not including Sonya herself and she was not sure about the reliability of two of them but desperate times called for desperate measures.

She looked back around the small wash room wondering yet again when they could get better headquarters then opened the door and shut it behind her. She entered a small canteen that also functioned as an office. It contained a few cupboards, a sink and a small fridge which all lay against the opposite wall, an old wooden table was positioned against the right hand wall in front of a large cork board filled with notes and photographs of cases that the OWIA were currently working on.

Outer World Investigation Agency what a joke, she thought, after everything they had done and sacrificed this was all the government could come up with? Four overworked agents in a poky office in Alaska. If Jax had been here he would have called in favours owed, there would be more agents, available money for equipment, outside expertise and weapons, a much better headquarters in a more suitable location...but Jax was not here to do this. She was and unfortunately Sonya had never developed that easy going attitude that had gotten Jax all those friends in all the right places. The table had four unmatched chairs of which three were currently occupied.

Johnny Cage currently languished in one and except for a small scar running down from his lip to his chin he looked the same as he had during Shao Kahn's invasion. Currently he had his feet propped up on the table, he held a black coffee in his right hand and was busy reading the sports results from today's newspaper in his left hand. Judging from the snorting noises he was making the baseball scores were not what they should have been. Johnny had helped Sonya form the OWIA as he felt his movie career was not important any more. Sonya was glad of Johnny's presence though despite his attempts at flirting and joking with her, she knew he had her back and she had his.

To the left of him sat Cyrax, one of the Lin Kuei hybrid cyberninjas. He had been automated along with Sektor, Sub-Zero and other unknown members of the clan on the orders of their Grandmaster. The only reason Cyrax was with them was due to luck although Cyrax insisted it was fate. After Shao Kahn's defeat Sonya, Johnny and Raiden had returned to their temporary base to prepare the bodies of the others for their funerals, Raiden was going to take them to the Shaolin Temple for the monks to give them their final rites. Cyrax along with the mindless automatons that had accompanied him and Sektor were still in the room where they had fallen. Sektor was nowhere to be seen and had apparently given Cyrax up for dead or had no further use for him. Upon examination Sonya had found that Cyrax's access panel had been damaged, exposing the delicate circuits beneath his armour; no doubt caused in the battle against Nightwolf. Using the same technique she and Jax had used to override Sub-Zero's programming she had deactivated his slave protocols allowing his own consciousness to re-emerge. After the wailing and a long string of what she could only believe were oaths in Cyrax's mother tongue Tswana; at least according to Raiden, Cyrax had sworn loyalty to Raiden although Sonya suspected it was only so he could get revenge upon the Lin Kuei. Raiden had asked him to help Sonya and Johnny though at the time they had been at a loss at what to do. Cyrax was not wearing the faceguard of his helmet and some of the upper body armour, the skin of his face and arms looked abnormally pale due to the lack of sunlight and Sonya could see wiring protruding directly under his skin. He was flicking through an intelligence report in Russian. Apparently it was common for Lin Kuei assassins to be fluent in several languages besides their mother tongue because it made it easier to operate in a foreign country.

The last occupant at the table was a handsome Eurasian man who wore a crimson-red silk sash across his eyes, he was dressed simply in black trousers and a thick red sweater and he had a sheathed katana blade leaning against the wall to the side of him. He called himself Kenshi, what his real name was none of them knew although Sonya was used to that she doubted that Cyrax was the cyborg's real name anyway. Johnny had recruited Kenshi, he remembered watching him fight on behalf of Earth at Shao Kahn's tournament against a general of the Emperor's named Reiko. At the time Johnny said he had forgotten about Kenshi as he and Smoke had been in shock after being forced to watch the Lin Kuei bargain with the Emperor for Sub-Zero. Sonya had not seen that battle or Sub-Zero's capture as she had returned to Earth with Jax after he had lost his arms against Ermac. However she was intrigued by Kenshi's telekinetic powers and his heightened senses after the loss of his sight. Currently Kenshi appeared to be reading something in Braille what language it was in Sonya did not know. According to Cyrax Kenshi was a fluent French and Japanese speaker and his casual use of idioms in both languages suggested he grew up bilingual probably in Japan, as far as Sonya could tell he was pretty fluent in English as well although he used the British Received Pronunciation.

Sonya approached the table and sat down, Johnny dropped his paper on the table and flashed a grin at her and winked as he removed his feet from off the table. Sonya shook her head mildly amused at his antics and then turned to Cyrax, "Is there anything interesting in that report on the Black Dragon?"

"Depends on your point of view according to the Moscow authorities there has been no new activity at any of the Black Dragon's known haunts. There seems to be an increase in the number of deaths attributed to drug deals gone wrong among suspected affiliates of the Black Dragon. But what seems strange is the lack of movement of money, weapons and narcotics by other parts of the organisation." Cyrax sighed, "we have removed only a few mid level people in the organisation it should not have disrupted them as much."

"Perhaps those people were more important than we thought?" Johnny interrupted.

Sonya shook her head "Intelligence from Ankara suggested that cell was not in direct communications with Jarek or anyone below him."

Kenshi stopped reading and tilted his head in Cyrax's direction "These deaths among narcotic dealers puzzles you Cyrax."

"Yes I'm not sure why but there seems to be a pattern. Almost as if someone was making them look like drug deals gone wrong" Cyrax drummed his fingers on the table, "It reminds me of an assignment Smoke and Tundra had completed in Ukraine. That one had to look like a disagreement between rival gangs and required a significant number of deaths."

Johnny rolled his eyes "The phrase you are looking for is probably turf war." He sipped from his coffee, "perhaps a rival gang are picking off Black Dragon members since Kano isn't around."

Sonya snorted "I hope not because we know nothing about a cartel large enough to take on the Black Dragon even the Mafia leave the Black Dragon alone." Sonya rubbed her temples feeling the start of another headache, "is there any leads on Jarek in that report Cyrax?"

Cyrax flipped a few pages through the report "One a car was stolen in St Petersburg three days ago. The surviving witness gave a description matching Jarek's profile."

Kenshi interrupted "Surviving witness there were more?"

Cyrax nodded and responded unperturbed "The other three occupants were killed at point blank range with a .44 Special gun, two men and one woman, all members of the same family." Johnny and Sonya winced and Kenshi opened his mouth in a silent O. Cyrax continued "the car was found a day ago in Tartu which is a city in Estonia not far from the border. The Russian authorities tracked the car using the blue tooth data of a mobile phone dropped inside the car by one of the victims."

Kenshi sighed "That sounds as if it is our best lead so far. If it is Jarek I wonder why he had to flee from Russia so suddenly."

Sonya closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose "who cares, Cyrax I want you to go to Moscow and gather what intelligence you can on these drug dealer deaths. If it's worrying you I think we should investigate." Sonya looked at Cyrax and narrowed her eyes he was looking at Johnny for confirmation of her orders. It still irked her that Cyrax would not follow any order she gave without checking with Johnny or Kenshi first. Smoke had been the same and from what he had told her there was no place for women in the Lin Kuei. It had come as a shock to her that the Lin Kuei thought women were only good for breeding and had little use for them outside of that.

Johnny caught her gaze and flashed a smile at Cyrax "Good idea Sonya I'll go with Cyrax and keep him company on the plane, we can watch _Ninja Mime _together it's just came out on Blue Ray." Cyrax rolled his eyes as Sonya and Kenshi chuckled, Cyrax had complained bitterly to them about the eight bucks he had wasted seeing that film in the cinema with Sub-Zero and Sektor before the tournament.

"Sonya do you wish for me to accompany you to Tartu or would you prefer I remain here and handle reports?" Kenshi asked. Sonya detected a slight note of frustration in his voice despite his abilities and fighting prowess the others still found it hard to not view his blindness as a disability. Despite Sonya's desire to chase after Jarek she had to attempt to trust Kenshi at some point.

She shook her head. "No I'll remain here and study the reports, it's about time I started doing that more regularly instead of chasing after Jarek. You can go to Estonia instead and see what you can find out." The look of surprise on the others faces made Sonya smile, she could still surprise people. "Besides I am your superior and I should be delegating more of the leg work among the three of you instead of doing it all myself."

Johnny stood and drained the rest of his coffee "Well if that's all settled I better pack a few things while Cyrax sorts out the flight. I may bring my earlier film _The Gist of my Fist_ in case we get bored." The look Cyrax gave the back of Johnny's head as he followed him out of the room suggested that Johnny may meet the same end as the main villain in _Ninja Mime_ before they reached the airport.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

High in the Himalaya mountains of Nepal stood an ancient temple, nestled silently within a deep valley, protected in all directions by sheer walls of rock, snow and ice. The temple appeared to be built with a mixture of different Buddhist traditional architecture.

The location of the temple gave the appearance that people had never been there, but the presence of a Stupa with an Aśokan Pillar erected in front of it and a large courtyard lined with prayer wheels and sculptures of Bodhisattvas, suggested otherwise.

Opposite the Stupa stood the main temple, a balcony was above the main gate. Currently a man, or something that looked like a man, stood at the balcony. He looked Dravidian, and if it wasn't for the long, white hair hanging loosely the length of his back, the inhumanly perfect facial features and the glowing white eyes, he could have passed for an South Indian man.

_The Temple of Elements, somewhat of a misnomer,_ Fujin mused. Currently Fujin was watching the storm rage around the temple. Fujin looked down at the inner courtyard and watched as a white wolf appeared at the base of the Aśokan Pillar, it was the size of a polar bear and had lightening emanating off it's fur.

_Looks like Raiju is getting his daily exercise, _thought Fujin with amusement, _hopefully he won't sleep on my navel later, I don't want Raiden waking me with a lightning bolt_. Raiden had left his animal companion at the temple, to conjure up storms preventing intruders approaching the temple from the hidden path or the air as humanity had recently learnt to do.

Chuckling to himself Fujin focused his mind and willed himself from the balcony into the inner sanctum of the temple. He appeared before a large doorway with a sealed door, guarded by two large statues of Nio, manifestations of Vajrapani. Both statues were cracked, the bright paint that had once adorned them had long since faded and peeled away and the statue to the left was missing his upraised hand.

Fujin frowned at that, once this temple had been filled with the sounds of Buddhist monks chanting the sutras and clouds of incense had perfumed the air. The statues and many of the Buddhist iconography had been built upon the original temple that the Elder Gods had constructed to house Shinnok's amulet.

Then the Temple of Elements had it's own Sangha community. It had trained monks and nuns, dispatching them into China, Tibet, even as far as Alexandria in the far west, to spread Dharma into those lands and beyond. Batuo the first abbot of the Shaolin Monastery had been instructed here and had taken a map of the location of the temple with him when he left.

For many years later, monks of the Shaolin Monastery would make the pilgrimage to learn from the ancient texts still preserved in it's library. They had stopped after the death of the Great Kung Lao, four hundred years ago.

That map had almost caused the downfall of the realms when Sub-Zero had obtained it for Quan Chi. The temple still showed damage from the assault by the Lin Kuei assassin several years previously and it had not occurred to the Gods to repair the damage.

Fujin's hand drifted to a Buddhist prayer wheel besides the left statue and spun it. Prayer wheels had been added to the temple and it's courtyards by the last pilgrims from Tibet. Fujin still felt comforted to hear the sound of the wind wheels turning in the outer courtyard and on still days would direct gentle breezes at them, to keep them turning endlessly, alleviating the bad karma of those the breeze touched.

The prayer wheel stopped and the door slowly opened inwards revealing the inner sanctum. When the amulet had been returned by Sub-Zero, the Gods had increased the security of the temple using the numerous prayer wheels throughout the complex to hold powerful spells. These would prevent intruders progressing through the temple.

Now not even humans could enter it and the Elemental Gods had regretted that, but their guardianship of the amulet came first. When Sub-Zero had entered the temple the Gods had been overjoyed as they had thought he was a pilgrim, but it was not until he had challenged them in combat that they had realised their mistake.

Fujin walked through the doorway and down the corridor, even the Gods' powers did not work fully here. It opened into a large room that lacked Buddhist iconography and it had been sealed from the Sangha that had once shared the temple complex with the Gods.

At the centre of the room stood a round pedestal and the amulet floated above it. A deep, still pool of water surrounded the pedestal and it glowed unnaturally in the dim light streaming through the rafters of the room.

As Fujin approached the water began to move and collect, it formed a humanoid shape. As Fujin watched Suijin, the water guardian, took his human form and all the water in the pool disappeared. Suijin inclined his head in greeting to Fujin and stepped away from the pedestal at Fujin's approach.

Fujin inclined his head, "greetings Brother for it is my turn to keep watch" Fujin said, "I know you have grown weary of your duty and now I must carry this burden." Fujin straightened, whenever the Gods relieved one another this was the traditional greeting they gave.

Suijin smiled and stretched, "it would be good to flow with the rapids again, after the monotony of stillness". His words were awkward and stilted, spending too little time in a human form affected the God's speech and movement. He bowed and walked through the corridor and out of the door. Fujin heard the doors shut behind him and he was left alone in the room.

Fujin approached the pedestal and shed his human form. The room filled with a strong hurricane wind that condensed and formed a tornado around the pedestal, then Fujin stood sentry over the amulet. He felt the storm outside abate and the winds died down as Raiju grew tired of his game.

Fujin let go of his thoughts and embraced his elemental nature as he guarded the amulet, losing all sense of identity and time, only his duty bound him to the room.

* * *

A loud explosion rocked the temple. Fujin was suddenly aware of his surroundings and quickly he regained human form. He could hear a fierce storm raging around the temple and the sounds of snarling, screams and magic filled the temple. _How much time has past? What is happening!_

Fujin looked towards the doors. _They are still sealed, but what is out there?_ He moved away from the pedestal and stood at the entrance of the corridor. He concentrated, willing his sword _Devastator_, made by the same sword smith who had created the _Sword of Goujian_, into his right hand.

A strong smell of sulphur and charred flesh was penetrating the room. Fujin gasped, _that smells like magic of the Netherealm_.

Suddenly a loud grinding noise of stone upon stone could be heard outside of the door.

_The statues of Nio are awakening. Beings of the Netherealm are attacking the temple!_ Fujin could hear the two Nio leaving their niches either side of the door and he listened to them marching away towards the battle.

For the second time in a hundred years Fujin could feel himself begin to panic. No being from the Netherealm has ever entered the temple. The Bodhisattvas, allies of the Elder Gods and friends of the elemental gods, had helped to defend the temple from the Netherealm for almost three thousand years.

The Bodhisattvas, Vajrapani and Ksitigarbha, had directed their followers through dreams and visions to construct statues of their manifestations throughout the temple complex. This had allowed them to manifest their power into the sculptures, creating powerful barriers against maleviolent magic, sourcerers and Netherealm beings.

An inhuman scream pierced the air and Fujin's heart sank. That was the voice of Suijin, if he had fallen, the others must have as well. Fujin looked down at his sword, it had began to glow and the Niao-Chong characters blazed white. He smiled grimly, _thank you Guanyin, your aid is much appreciated._

Fujin felt himself calm as he tightened the grip on this sword in both hands and took a fighting stance. He listened to the sound of the battle and heard one of the Nio crash to the ground.

He looked at the door, it was beginning to glow red and hot. Something powerful was breaking the seal. The door suddenly bulged inwards and then shattered. It's remains hung on their hinges.

Fujin looked towards the smoke and dust to see a figure silloetted in light.

"Get Over Here!" Shouted the figure in Japanese. Fujin barely dodged the kunai hurled towards him. He felt it graze the right side of his face, but ignored it as he charged, sword raised, towards his enemy.

His opponent quickly drew his ninjato sword, deflected Fujin's thrust to the left and quickly followed with a thrust of his own.

Fujin parried the blow, half stepped towards his enemy and jabbed his left elbow towards his opponent's stomach. The blow never connected, his opponent had teleported away and Fujin barely had time to parry another strike delivered directly behind him.

_By the Elder Gods he's quick._ Fujin sidekicked with his right leg and smiled as the blow landed. He and his opponent traded several attacks and both of them lost their swords as they parried, but Fujin gained the upper hand, he outside blocked a straight punch and attacked with an right uppercut and elbow to the face.

He quickly dropped his right elbow onto the chest, locked his opponent's right arm, simultaneouly delivering a chop to the neck with his right hand.

He grabbed his opponent's face, crushed it with his palm and used the leverage from the locked arm to hurl him to the ground. Fujin smiled, he had hit the Shan Zhong point on the chest and the He Liao point on the face, his body had gone into shock.

Suddenly Fujin cried in agony as he was kicked in the back of the head. Stumbling forward he fell on top of his previous opponent and quickly rolled off as a stomp was aimed at his back.

The stomp connected with his previous opponent and Fujin heard his cry. The new enemy chuckled darkly, "There is always a silver lining in every cloud, Scorpion."

Fujin started, he knew that voice from years ago and recognised the Xingyi quan stance. " I know you! You are Sub-Zero! How dare you violate this sanctuary again! You will not leave this place alive!" Fujin scrambled to his feet and stood ready to resume combat.

"The man you once fought was called Sub-Zero. I am Noob Saibot and your death would please our master" As he spoke Scorpion stood, glowered towards Noob Saibot and took a combat stance beside him.

They both charged at Fujin and combat began again.

Minutes later Fujin was thrown to the ground and spat blood as he hit the stone surface. _There's not just two opponents, more like three, that shadow of Noob Saibot's is just as powerful._ Fujin rolled over and saw that Noob Saibot was standing next to the empty pedestal, the amulet was in his hand.

"I have defeated you twice Wind God, remember how you have failed Raiden and the Elder Gods as you watch the realms burn!" Noob Saibot laughed and ran towards the doors out of the chamber. Fujin looked to see Scorpion remove his mask, revealing a flaming skull. He opened his mouth and breathed fire towards Fujin enveloping him.

Fujin screamed in agony and turned his head and watched as Scorpion grinned and fled out of the room. He noticed the _Devastator_ to his right and grabbed the sword. As the flames burnt his flesh, an energy shield emanted from the sword, healing his wounds.

Fujin offered a prayer to Guanyin and staggered to his feet, limping down the corridor in pursuit of his enemies. Limping through the temple he passed the body of Suijin, his head was missing, the two Nio guardians had been shattered and various Bodhisattva statues were smashed throughout the complex. The two other guardians had been killed at the entrance to the main temple and Raiju had been hacked to death in the courtyard.

As Fujin exited the temple and crossed the courtyard towards the stupa, two, large skeletal hands thrusted from out of the ground and grabbed him. They crushed him and he could feel his ribs crack, the hands turned him over and threw him into the Aśokan Pillar. Fujin screamed and hit the ground.

As he groggily looked up he could see the Elder God Shinnok standing in front of him. He wore the amulet on his belt and he was flanked by Noob Saibot and Scorpion.

Fujin's heart sank, he had failed, the realms were lost. He looked into the grinning face of Shinnok.

"Finish Him!" Shinnok commanded and his two servants began to manipulate their Qi energy, forming balls of fire and ice respectively.

_Some say the world will end in fire, some in ice_. Thought Fujin as he awaited his death. _How could Shinnok have two such powerful servants?_

Suddenly the Aśokan Pillar glowed and Fujin could see Aśokan's edict glowing in the stone. A light enveloped him, he could hear Shinnok's shriek of rage as Fujin lost consciousness during the teleportation.


End file.
